The Unnamed
by 383BooksFictionally
Summary: On that fated day in their childhood home, there were not four hands on the circle, but six. The secret sister of the Elric Brothers is called a secret for a reason, and when she escapes from hiding, what will Edward do to keep the secret? What will he do when everyone knows?
1. Preview 1

_"Brother, please stop this! A story such as this can only end in tears and tragedy."_

_"What do you know? You left too! It's not like you ever cared!"_

_"Brother, of course I care. About you and Alphonse both! I-"_

_"Stay away from Al, you heartless bitch."_

_"Brother..."_

After watching her his back fade into the distance, the girl opened her eyes and allowed one tear to slip from her eye before she closed it once again.

"What did I tell you, idiot?"

"What?! What do you mean 'Ed's sister?'" The energetic man was surprised, of course, having just been told news that he doubted anyone else knew about the youngest state alchemist in Amestrian history.

"Just what I said," his blond partner in conversation replied, "Ed's sister has been living in this city for some time, so I don't really need to stay with you and your faimily. PLease, I don't want to be a burden."

"A burden? Nonsense! We'd be glad to have you, plus it's Elicia's birthday, and she'd be so happy to meet you. Besides, I'll need you to give me more details about this 'Ed's sister,'" the man replied with a mischievous grin. The man, Lieutenant Colonel Maes Hughes, placed an arm around the girl and forcefully led her through the empty halls of the hospital and outside to his car. She protested the whole time, but he kept an iron grip.

_"Hey, Al. Since we're already here, do you think it would... be okay...?"_

"So, it's not really a big deal," the young blond teen finished explaining around the head of a large teddy bear.

"Of course it's a big deal! The Elric Brothers and the secret Elric Sister-"

"Not Elric," she said, lowering her gaze to the ground. "To avoid confusion, she took the name 'Hohenheim.'"

_"I'm sure she wouldn't mind, but what about you?"_

"Though, if you want to stay on Ed's good side, I wouldn't suggest mentioning her around him. You'd probably be fine talking to Al, but Ed would either lose his temper or lose his calm."

"Eh? Why just Ed?"

"Because he blames himself for what happened."

_"I think I'm strong enough this time."_

The two brothers stand outside the great, black iron gates, their gold and silver contrasting the dark and gloomy atmosphere of the building. Neither one can take the first step, and eventually the golden one takes a step back, shaking his head.

_Not today..._

_._

_._

_. _

_._

_._

_._

_._

_._

_I'm sorry_

**End of preview**

**Hello, precious readers! I hope you've enjoyed the first preview. There will be two short previews to make interest (hopefully), give the story an ominous mood (probably), and provide, as well as get rid of, some confusion. The real chapters will be longer than this, though. I'm sorry if anyone seemed OOC or if the two conversations at the same time confused you, but don't worry. After the previews, the rest of the story should be more understandable since it will be told from one person's point of view. Please, please, please, let me know what you think, any suggestions, stuff like that. I'm open to ideas because, though I know what's going to happen, there are a few grey areas mixed in. The more reviews, the more likely I'll be able to continue! **


	2. Preview 2

_"Mama... Mama..." she cried. 'I just wanted to make you proud. I'm not a monster!'_

_"What do we have here?" A smooth, calming voice wafted to her ears, and she turned her tear-streaked face to the woman who towered before her. She did not look like a towering beast, like most other women had, but she had a gentle smile on her face and a ponytail on one shoulder. The woman walked over to the crying girl, lowered herself to her eye level, and placed a hand on her head. "You must be hungry. Why don't you come back to my home, and we'll get you something nice and warm to eat?"_

_"Mama told me to wait here," the girl replied with her tiny, breaking, terrified, sad little voice. All these emotions travelled to the woman and struck her heart. _

_'What a tiny, breaking, terrified, sad little girl,' she thought._

_"Well, I'll just have to call your Mama and ask her if it's alright. OK?" She cleverly lied to the little girl for her own sake. Does this make her a bad person? The tiny girl nodded. But the woman looked to the sky instead of to her. "Oh, dear. It seems as though a storm is coming. Why don't you come with me to my home, where the phone is? Then I can give you something nice to eat, and I can call your Mama and tell her where you are, and we'll both be nice and dry under a roof. What do you say?" The woman, so clever, offered her hand to the confused little girl. The girl took it, not knowing then that that one hand had changed her life forever._

She opened her eyes slowly, stretching herself upwards and rising from her "dream."

"_Still thinking of unnecessary things, are you?_" The other "person" in the room called out to her a question, which she answered with a glare and a short phrase.

"Shut up."

The "person" grinned menacingly then turned to the other quiet presence in the space.

"It seems as though we'll be having a visitor." Suddenly, the unoccupied gate opened, and a golden presence was set inside the white room. The doors shut, and the room was silent. Then, the half-metal boy's eyes opened. Hers widened.

"Brother!" Her voice jumped from her throat without her consent. Her body moved without permission. She was soon embracing him, and she didn't know why. "I've missed you so much."

"V-Vallie?!" His exclamation shocked her into control. So long had it been since anyone had called her name, and it made her so happy. A smug grin widened on her face, but she hid it quickly. She removed herself from being draped across his shoulders and shook her head.

"I think you're here to see him," she gestured to the weak boy behind her and returned to her small corner of the universe, grinning with her victory.

After the golden boy had disappeared, the white "person" appeared beside her. Without looking up from the notes she was writing, she spoke to the creature.

"Our deal?"

"_Of course_." It's reply surprised her, and she looked at the creature beside her. Then a smug look appeared on her face and she glared at the thing.

"Oh? I thought you were more possessive than this, beast. I honestly thought you would back out of the deal shrieking 'it's not fair!' or 'another chance!' or some nonsense like that." The girl's attitude was vile, but no more so than the way she had been treated for so long.

"_Yes, I suppose I am a bit calm for losing my favorite conversation partner. But, I won't stand for your gloating any longer. Go! Be gone from my sight, human. I hope to never see you on this side of the gate ever again_!"

"As you wish, beast." She spoke with a bow then waited for the gate to open and the black arms to wrap around her. She reveled in the pain of having her limbs torn apart then reassembled, because it meant she was going home. Finally, finally, home.

After the girl had left, Truth turned to the other inhabitant of his realm. He was watching him curiously, then he spoke.

"_Why did you never make a deal with me? Didn't you want to go back_?" It questioned the boy, simply curious, though it knew the answer.

"I have faith that Brother will come to get me, and it'd be bad if he finally made it here and I had already gone on without him."

"_Hmph. Just as I thought._"

**Hello, readers! Thank you for reading the second preview of my story. Next week I'll post the first real chapter. It's already been written, but in order to avoid overloading myself I'll only be posting once a week. If any of you didn't already notice, I've changed my pen name from Pandora99 to 383BooksFictionally. It's so that I'm the opposite of my sister, 382BooksActually, who should be following me but isn't. From now on I should be posting once a week, and if you notice I don't post for a while, spam me. I mean it. If that happens, you should get a chapter soon. So for now, have fun wondering what happens next and be glad you're not my friends, because they already know. I apparently can't shut up about this thing. I sure do hope they're not annoyed... Bye bye, see you next week. **


	3. Chapter 1

Roy Mustang massaged his temples in an attempt to get rid of an ensuing headache. He had only just arrived at his desk, only to be barraged with papers, forms, and documents that needed his signature. No matter the word used to describe it, paperwork was paperwork, and therefore undesirable. Steeling himself, the colonel stole a glance at the paper at the top of the stack. It was a report on an explosion that had happened at an asylum several days ago. Though the story appeared interesting, the colonel dreaded having to read the report and sign off on its arrival. He was about to return to procrastination until he spotted a very unique name. A sly grin crossed his face as he considered how fun it would be to tease his subordinate about this later. Grabbing the report, Mustang rushed from the office and, hesitating slightly, went to find someone else who would find this dilemma quite interesting.

"So what you're saying is that you didn't come all the way down here just to see pictures of my lovely wife and daughter?" the happy-go-lucky military officer asked his friend after a half hour of gushing about his beloved family.

"That's what I've been saying this whole time!" the other military officer, now frustrated, relayed to his friend in a forceful manner. He had urgent news, and all this man could think about was how cute his daughter was?! "So, back to the urgent news I had been hoping to tell you, I was hoping you could take a look at this and dig up some information on the parties involved."

The cheerful military man grabbed the report from his friend with a suddenly grim look and looked it over quickly, skimming the mere details. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he turned to his friend.

"Hey, did you see this? It says that..." His voice trailed off, for he was unable to continue. However, his superior officer nodded, knowing what he intended to say.

"That's right. The only person they haven't found, dead or alive, is her." He paused dramatically and took another glance at the unbelievable piece of paper that had started a dilemma.

"Valerie Hohenheim."

"Glad I finally learned her name," the cheerful man stated, breaking the tension that had built up in the room as they stared at the singular piece of paper. It took a moment for his words to sink in, but the superior officer soon turned to his friend questioningly.

"What did you say?" he questioned furiously.

"Well, I'd heard from their childhood friend, Winry, that they had a sister, but she never told me her name other than that she took Hohenheim as her last name." After this sentence, Maes Hughes finally stole a glance at his friend, who glared angrily at him, as though he had kept from him a terrible secret. "Sh-she said that it was to avoid confusion, which I didn't really get, since the whole rest of the family is named Elric other than their father, and I don't know anything else, so maybe you should call Fullmetal himself." As he had spoken, the air of danger surrounding him had increased, and he spoke faster and faster, becoming smaller and smaller, trying to hide from his fate of being crispy as the toast his friend had no doubt eaten for breakfast.

"That's a good idea." Mustang stormed out of the office in a huff and went to his own.

"Yeah, and while you do that, I'll go home and get a change of underwear!" his friend shouted after him. Thus, another cheerful day at work began for both of them.

He was about to slam the door shut behind him when he heard a phone ring. Turning quickly, Edward Elric let out a single curse before heading back into the dark room and picking up the phone.

"What? We were just about to leave," Edward answered, irritated.

"Oh, good. You haven't left yet," the annoying voice of his superior, Roy Mustang, wafted out of the receiver of the phone, and Edward had to fight an urge to slam the phone back on its stand.

"What do you want?" the teen demanded the phone.

"I just figured you might have a bit of information I need for an investigation. You see, I got this report this morning-"

"Cut to the chase, Colonel, or I'm going to be late for my train!"

"You might want to be." His voice. Changed. He knows something he shouldn't. "As I was saying, apparently, an explosion went off at an asylum the other day." No. no no no. He won't say it. He doesn't know. No one knows... "And the only person involved that they couldn't find was a girl. She's fifteen, black hair."

"No way..." he barely breathed it, the inaudible two syllables.

"And her name was Valerie Hohenheim. Know her?"

The world _stopped._ His flesh hand went numb, and he dropped the phone. There was a resounding _thud _as it hit the wooden floor of the rented room. His breath stopped, as though one of her playful punches had landed on his diaphragm. Edward turned and left the room like that, the phone dangling, and the colonel's cries unheard.

Suddenly, Alphonse was there. He grabbed his brother's shoulders, shook him, shouted his name, but he didn't notice. All he did was look into his eye sockets and whisper two words, words that meant everything.

"She's gone."

_A sudden exclamation startled her awake,and light began to stream onto her face in full force. Reaching up to find the cover that had once covered her, she remembered her position. Opening her eyes quickly, the child stood from her sleeping space and wrapped her mind around the familiar, golden face of the odd man before her. She giggled for a brief moment then jumped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck._

_"Good morning, Papa!" she exclaimed happily. He pulled her off of his neck and stared at her in disbelief._

_"What were you doing sleeping in my suitcase?!" Van Hohenheim questioned the girl loudly. She rubbed her tired eyes and looked into his. _

_"Was that bad, Papa?" she asked with her head leaned to the side._

_"It was, and you know it. Don't try to get out of this by acting cute!" the alchemist nearly shouted as he scolded his daughter harshly, immediately seeing through her cute act. _

_"I'm sorry, Papa," she mumbled, fake tears beginning to form in her eyes. The father sighed and patted the girl on the head reassuringly. After she stopped crying, he became business-like once again. _

_"So, would you mind telling me why you were in my suitcase?" he asked overbearingly. The girl looked away in thought for a moment, then she turned back to the alchemist with a grin on her face._

_"I wanted to come, too!" she exclaimed happily._

_"Huh?"_

_"I overheard you and Mama talking last night about you leaving and... well..." she trailed off and glanced to his face, reassuring what she wanted to say. "I-I was drawn to your alchemical power, so I wanted to come with you."_

_"Huh?" he asked again, only more confused over something else._

_"Please, teach me about alchemy!" The girl clapped her hands together and sat on her knees in front of him, bowing her head. It was then that the alchemist realised that the position they were in was strange. The girl, sitting in his suitcase, sat on the table before him while he sat comfortably in the seat. A few people were even beginning to look his way. He picked up the girl frantically and placed her on the seat beside him._

_"Alright, alright, but there are a few conditions. One, your last name will be Hohenheim instead of Elric, to avoid confusion. Two, you will not cause a scene, especially when I am doing something important. Three, this one is most important," he leaned down and looked into her bright, childlike eyes with his dark ones. "You will not call me Papa, you will call me either Van or Hohenheim. Do I make myself clear?" The girl thought for a moment then turned to face the alchemist with a smile._

_"Yes, Van Hohenheim!"_

**Hello, readers! Thanks for reading the first real chapter of my story. It's not very good, but I promise, once the plot thickens, the writing will get better! Do you see my exclamation point? It means emphasis! As usual, thanks for reading and please read and review. Also, I realized I forgot to add a disclaimer, so I'm doing that now that the real plot has started. Thanks for reading, and please review!**

**I do not own any characters, settings, or general plot other than my own ideas. All others belong to the author of Fullmetal Alchemist.**


	4. Chapter 2

Roy Mustang was surprised, no, dumbfounded, but he wasn't about to let the eldest Elric child beside him know that. At the scene of the explosion, the Central City Mental Hospital, Colonel Roy Mustang was shown a picture of the only person unaccounted for, Valerie Hohenheim. Hohenheim's children usually had blond hair and golden eyes, but this one, the only one to take his name, had almost the exact opposite. Her hair and eyes were jet black, but her skin was clear and pale. It could be said for a child of Hohenheim to have a regal or cat-like face, but hers was thinner, more like a snake. In short, there was no family resemblance.

Though he tried to hide it, Edward Elric seemed to sense his surprise at the lack of family resemblance.

"I can see a look of surprise in your face. What's the matter, never seen a girl as pretty as my sister before, you perv?" the eldest Elric child teased. Ignoring the kid's teasing comments, the colonel replied cooly.

"Well, usually I'd expect there to be more resemblance, especially considering how much you look like your father," Mustang replied. Noticing the colonel's cool attitude, the kid held back further teasing remarks.

"Well that's because she's not blood related to us. Our mother found her lost in the streets one day, so she brought her in, and eventually she was like family."

"I see," the colonel muttered.

"But even if she doesn't look like she's related, she sure does act like it. Her alchemy's even more advanced than mine." As Edward Elric spoke, his eye glimmered with pride, and he kept his cool easily. It was almost as if he was talking about his own child rather than his sister.

'But I guess that's what it's like to be an elder sibling,' Roy Mustang thought to himself.

"So, I guess we'd better find her then."

"Yeah," Edward glanced down at the ground, wishing his brother was there with him, but because Winry still needed someone to go to Rush Valley with her, they had left him in Central so he could search for his sister.

"Sir!" a voice shouted from behind them. He rushed toward them and panted a bit as he halted before the Fullmetal and Flame Alchemists, and he caught his breath before delivering his news. "Sir, a young woman matching the description provided for Valerie Hohenheim was just seen by an officer purchasing a train ticket."

"She left the city?!" Mustang exclaimed. "Where was she going?"

"Somewhere called Dublith, sir," the soldier replied. Both Edward and Roy froze for a moment. At that exact moment, both were probably thinking the same thing, and both were probably regretting getting Edward off that train.

_"Hey, Vallie?" The timid voice of her younger brother broke the silence as the two were walking home from school._

_"Yes, Alphonse Elric?" He mentally winced as she called him more formal than siblings should, but he ignored the feeling and continued with his question._

_"Do you think I'll be able to see Mom again?" To say she was surprised by the sudden question would be an appropriate description, but she reasoned it was because the date of the "event" was drawing ever closer. _

_"No." _

_"Eh?" Alphonse looked at her serious face, surprised. He was used to Ed's inspiration and comforting, so he didn't expect for his sister to answer so bluntly or honestly._

_"I've warned you many times, I expect the transmutation to fail and for everyone to lose something important to them."_

_"I see," Alphonse replied quietly. They walked in silence for a while before he turned to her."Well, I think we're going to succeed," he stated stubbornly. His sister was about to negate his remark when she turned to him and saw the pure smile lingering on his face. Then she paused and nodded to the boy._

_"Yes, I suppose you could be right."_

"Wow! Winry, look at the sunset!" A cheerful, echoing voice exclaimed. It was very familiar to the girl.

'Wait...'

"Oh, wow! I'm surprised you even noticed that, Al. Sunsets aren't really a manly thing," Winry replied. The boy laughed sheepishly, and the girl hidden behind them paled as she heard the voices in the next seat over.

'Winry... And Al too. Of all the trains in the station, I just _had_ to get on this one,' she thought as she tried to find a way to escape from being found. She thought she was safe once she had left the city, but to see her younger brother in a place like this...

Pulling the hood on her dark coat higher, she listened to the conversation behind her.

"It's kind of sad that Ed couldn't come," Winry noted, her tone darkening.

"Yeah.. But I'm sure he'll be able to meet up with us in Rush Valley!" the boy replied happily, brightening up the mood of the seat behind his sister. Winry didn't reply verbally, which made Valerie assume she replied with a look of some sort. Noticing how the silence grew awkward, the boy tried to change the subject.

"So, nice weather, huh?" Valerie almost had to feel bad for the kid's lack of social skill.

"Huh? Oh, yeah," Winry replied dazedly. Figuring the two of them were looking at the weather outside the train, Valerie took the opportunity to sneak out of the seat and into another car of the train. What she didn't see coming was the large body of her brother poking out of the seat and into the aisle.

"Ah!" Alphonse heard someone exclaim, and glancing over, he realized a person had tripped over his large metal leg.

"Oh, sorry!" Alphonse exclaimed as he leaned down to help the fallen girl. "Are you alright?" He asked her this out of reflex, and also because he saw she was clutching her knee with her hands. He tried to reach down to help her, but she batted his hands away as if on instinct.

"I-I'm fine," she stammered, pulling her hood down over her face and standing slowly. Alphonse looked closer at the girl. Something about her was familiar, but he couldn't put his finger on it. She raced away without another word, and Alphonse watched her go curiously.

"What's wrong, Al?" Winry asked, noticing him staring in the direction of the cloaked girl.

"Nothing, she just seemed familiar," Alphonse replied, growing quiet afterward. This time, the silence was not awkward. Rather, it was thoughtful for both alchemist and mechanic. The silence was broken only a few moments later when the mechanic yawned.

"I'm going to try and get some sleep. I don't want to get to the automail capital of Amestris only to be too tired to do anything," Winry commented.

"Okay, I'll just be here," Alphonse replied with a happy tone. One could only assume he was smiling on the inside.

'The weird thing is, I thought she sounded sort of familiar too,' Winry thought to herself as she fell asleep, bringing on dreams, and nightmares, of her past.

"Winry, we're here." A metallic, yet soft, voice roused the blonde from her sleep, gently shaking her and calling her name. She pulled herself from the happiest memories of her life, and she smiled up at what remained of them.

"Sorry, Al. I was having such a good dream," she commented as she collected her things and disembarked from the train.

"I'm sorry for waking you, then," Alphonse apologized. Winry shook her head and kept walking. She examined the crowded streets, slowly forgetting about the dream and instead living one in the streets of Rush Valley.

"Hey, Winry!" Alphonse called from a crowd that had engulfed him, interested in his "full-body automail." The girl turned and giggled at the boy's predicament, and she helped him shoo the crowd away. "Thanks," Alphonse sighed. "We should probably find a phone and contact Brother. And we should also reserve beds at the military bunkhouse," Alphonse suggested.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Winry agreed.

"What do you mean she was on our train?!" Alphonse exclaimed into the phone, disturbing his few neighbors. He and Winry took nearly the entire day getting to the bunkhouse, spending most of their time exploring the various shops and displays along the way. Only now was he learning he had missed the one opportunity he was going to have to see his sister for a while.

"She took a train to Dublith. We don't know why yet, but we do know that she must have passed through Rush Valley to get there. I'm in Dublith now, and I'll have to stay with Teacher, since you have my pocket watch," the tiny alchemist explained. If Alphonse had a heart, it would have skipped a beat. Something his brother had said set off alarms in his mind.

"I have your watch?" Alphonse questioned, looking through the few things he carried to check for it.

"Yeah, I gave it to you so you could get lodging at the bunkhouse, remember?" Edward replied, suddenly growing cold himself.

"No, I got a permit for the housing, so I never got your watch, remember?" Alphonse countered. "Here, I'll ask Winry if she knows who should have it, because if I don't and you don't, then that means..." He trailed off, not wanting to face the truth..

"It could have been stolen..." Edward finished for him.

"Brother, what are we going to do, if that is the case?" Alphonse questioned after a brief silence.

"We'll just have to find it. I'll call that colonel, and you can ask around Rush Valley, OK?" Alphonse nodded, then remembered that a nod couldn't be heard through a phone and responded verbally. Then he hung up the phone and walked in a way that would have been tired if an empty suit of armor could be tired, to Winry's room. Knocking on her door, he entered and found her sitting on her bed, poring over a book. Judging by the cover, it probably had something to do with mechanics and automail. She noticed him and set the book down beside her.

"What's wrong?" she asked familiarly. She patted the area of the bed beside her, offering it as a seat for him. He instead sat on the floor beside the bed, not wanting to take up too much space or crush the bed with his weight.

"Do you know who had Brother's pocket watch?" Alphonse asked quietly. Winry thought for a moment then nodded to herself.

"I think Ed said he put it in your stuff for us to use to get the rooms, but since you had that permit, I didn't think we'd need it, so I didn't mention it," she confessed. Alphonse, realizing he had lost his brother's State Alchemist watch, let his head drop, and he groaned loudly to himself.

"What's the matter?" Winry asked, surprised by his reaction.

"I've lost Brother's pocket watch!" He exclaimed loudly, his voice cracking from would-be tears.

"Don't worry! I'm sure it'll turn up! After all, it's not like anyone wouldn't recognize a state alchemist's watch, right?" Winry stated, trying to cheer up the armor. Then, she noticed something. "That's not all that's bothering you, is it?" He was silent for a long time before he spoke.

"She was there." His voice was so quiet, Winry almost couldn't hear it. "She was right there. I could've found her, and given her a big hug, and said 'let's go home,' but I didn't! She was right there, and I, her little brother, didn't even know. I should've found her! I should've known! I should've..." He didn't have tears to stop him. All he had was Winry, who was now hugging him from behind, her on her bed and he on the floor. He couldn't feel her warmth. All he could feel was her weight pressing down on his back, making him lean forward. She said nothing, only held his cold metal tightly, trying to somehow make him feel her warmth.

"I wish..."

"I know."

**Hello, readers! I'm sorry about the late update. I thought I had updated last week, but I guess my computer had problems or something, and I had no idea this chapter hadn't posted. So in the future, please, if I don't post on time, send me a message. Also, I'll be starting another story soon, so I will be posting less often. **

**Again, thanks for reading, and please leave a review!**


	5. Chapter 3

_"Hey, you." The girl's voice called to her guard boredly. He turned his head to see her laying on her bed in silence, reaching her arm up to see something only her eyes could see. _

_"What?" He asked harshly, turning his whole body toward her with an angry look on his face. Her unfocused eyes continued staring at the ceiling, ignoring his hostility. _

_"Do you see them?" She asked in her dazed-sounding voice. He glanced to where her eyes were looking, but he saw nothing out of the ordinary. He looked back at her and saw she was watching him. He shook his head, and she returned her dark gaze to the ceiling._

_"Is that so? That's a real shame. They're beautiful." She continued staring at the same spot for a while, narrowing her eyes later. "Mama, I think I might be a monster. A crazy one," she called to some unknown being that only she could see. She closed her eyes, finally lowered her arm, and, a minute later, let out a tiny laugh._

_"Anyone would think you're crazy, laughing at nothing," the man in the corner stated meanly. _

_"It's not nothing," she replied, giggling again. "My arm's all tingly because I held it in the air for so long." Hearing her explanation, the guard in the corner sighed, and after the noise, the room became silent once again. _

_The silence was broken forever later, possibly days, by the same person._

_"Hey, you," the dark girl called in her surprisingly strong-sounding voice._

_"What?" The guard replied, ceasing to use venom in conversing with her. _

_"Do you have a name?" She asked. The guard scoffed at her question, apparently finding it ridiculous._

_"Everybody has a name. Some people change or reject their names, but all people at one point were given a name," he replied smartly._

_"Will you tell me your name?" The girl asked patiently. She looked away from her imaginings and back at him, her eyes drilling holes into his mind. She could see through him, _into _him, and he could feel her probing around and judging every piece of him._

_"I-It's Private Jackson Marris," he replied with a slight automatic salute, bringing his arm down to his side when he realized who he was saluting. The girl turned this information over in her mind, picking it apart, truth and lies._

_"I asked for your name, not his." Her reply was shocking to her guard, but he kept his cool as easily as he could._

_"I've told you my name, it's Jackson-"_

_"I've already forgotten which of his 'children' could transform. What a sad excuse of an alchemist I am," she stated in the coldest voice he had ever heard from her. He could no longer keep his cool, so he decided to keep his mouth shut and try to keep his emotions inside. "Ah, now I remember!" She exclaimed, sudden exhilaration infecting her emotions. Then her glare cooled down again._

_"You're Envy, right?"_

He had searched everywhere. He had searched the stores, the workshops, even the bus, but the silver gleam of his brother's pocket watch was nowhere to be found. Now he wandered the streets of Rush Valley with a depressed aura surrounding him, driving away all potential automail freaks who would like to investigate his armor. He had called Ed several times to check on his progress, but both had run out of ideas. Having finally given up, Alphonse wandered the streets hoping for the epiphany of a lifetime. Suddenly, it came in the form of two gossiping men.

"Did you hear what that Paninya did?"

"What is it this time?"

"I heard she stole a State Alchemist's pocket watch."

"No way!"

"Even worse, she tried to sell it."

"That kid's crazy! She's gonna get in some trouble that she can't worm out of someday."

"Excuse me, but could you please tell me where to find this Paninya?" Alphonse's interjection into the conversation was swift and unforeseen. Both men jumped, and one, intimidated by his size, spat out her location with a stutter.

"Sh-she lives a-at the top of the hill w-with that crazy mechanic, Dominic LeCoulte!" The men were terrified, and after the one spat out his answer, they took one glance at each other and ran from Alphonse down the alley.

"Thanks," Alphonse muttered to the running men who, of course, couldn't hear him. With a sigh, he turned and marched toward the hill.

'I wish people weren't always so afraid of me...' The metal soldier had thought such things in frequency, but there wasn't much he could do to change it. He marched through the heat of a summer day in the dry place slowly, but he never tired. His metal body protected him, and kept him, from feeling anything.

"Hey, Al! Wait up!" Hearing the high-pitched, feminine voice, Alphonse turned to see Winry catching up to him on the steep trail.

"Winry?" he questioned as she caught up, placing her hands on her knees and panting. "What are you doing here?"

"Hope I'm not interrupting an inner debate," she stated after she caught her breath, "but I'll be going to Dominic's with you." Alphonse was expecting to be alone, but he realized he was happy for the company and nodded happily.

'Someone's following me,' the girl thought to herself as she walked through the mildly crowded streets. Sparing a glance behind her, she saw a short figure wearing a battered was the same figure she had seen at the food stand she had stopped at earlier, and it was definitely the same figure she had seen on her train ride here. She turned suddenly into an alley, determined to lose it. She walked through twists and turns, slowly gaining speed, but the cloaked figure stuck to her path as if it could smell her. It too was gaining speed. 'I guess I'll just see what it wants.' She stopped suddenly and turned to her pursuer. It stopped suddenly, not expecting confrontation. The two dark, cloaked figures faced each other in the alley, each waiting for the other to speak. Finally, she did.

"Why are you following me?" She spoke harshly, her voice tough and loud. The figure looked like it was about to bolt, and she took action. She propelled herself forward, ramming an elbow into the figure's gut. The person fell to its knees, and she launched another attack, this time a foot to its face. The figure fell back with a shoe print on its face, its hood pushed back from the force of the blow. She sat herself on top of the ugly beast whose face now showed, her arm poised to kill it if need be. Once again, she demanded. "Who are you? And why are you following me?" The creature shrieked loudly before trying to raise its hands to shield its face.

"I'm sorry! I'm Bido, a-and Mr. Greed sent me to bring you to him," the pathetic creature wailed. The look in his eye showed he felt guilty for betraying his friend, "Mr. Greed." Wait, Greed?! The girl grabbed the collar of the creature's shirt, pulling his putrid face close to hers

"Did you just say Greed?" She asked in a ferocious manner. The creature nodded, and she released him. With a sickly smile, her cold eyes bored into his head, freezing his mind and heart. She began to chuckle lightly, a plan forming in her mind. "You _will_ take me to this "Greed," and I _will_ kill him. Understand?" All the creature could do was nod. She lifted herself from the ground, and the creature stood, very very slowly. She gave him one last menacing look before speaking.

"Lead on, Bido," she teased, following the chimera from the alley and into the streets as he slowly lead her to the Devil's Nest.

Once they were in front of the door to the Devil's Nest, the girl pushed Bido aside, sensing the presence of a homunculus behind the door. She slammed the door open with all her might, alerting those inside to her arrival. Glancing behind, she noticed Bido had run away and chuckled, thinking the action suited him. She then walked into the dark room and announced herself loudly.

"Special delivery! Special delivery for someone by the name of Mr. Greed," she called to the blackness before her. She could sense the presence of many chimeras behind her, blocking out the meager light the open door had offered. One of them came up to her from behind and placed a hand on her shoulder, and she turned to face him. He was a very large man with long white hair and bulging muscles. She didn't even give him a chance to speak before placing her hand over his. She then crouched down suddenly and shifted her weight to her back, pushing out her leg to trip him and flip him over her. It was a very sudden move that ended with him dazed on the ground and the girl crouching beside him. A shocked silence fell over the crowd, and she stood, putting on an innocent façade and looking around the crowd now surrounding her. "If it's not too much trouble, I'd like to speak with Mr. Greed," she requested in a childlike voice. She could feel them beginning to close in on her, and she made a decision then and there. She held out her arms, and the crowd backed off, worried about what she would do. "If you must tie me up before you allow me to meet with Mr. Greed, I am fine with that too," she offered. One of the people in the crowd then slowly inched forward and cautiously wrapped a rope around her wrists. She stood perfectly still for the process, but she glared icily at him at the same time. However, her childlike smile never left her face.

Once the chimera finished tying her wrists, a part was made in the crowd, and he led her to another door which undoubtedly led her to Greed. Now that her eyes had adjusted to the lack of light, the girl could see that it was a mere four or five people, not really a large crowd as she had at first thought. She followed the chimera leading her, and eventually he led her to another room. He held the door open for her and closed it behind her. She walked into a small room lit by candles and not much else. The only furnishings were a desk and two chairs, and in one of the chairs was a dark figure, a man wearing dark clothes with dark hair. The man smiled at her with a dark smile, and after these few observations she knew that he was the homunculus she was looking for. Both parties in the room wore dark smirks as they surveyed the ones in front of them. They both felt like predators who had finally found their prey, but one was right and the other was only fooling themselves.

**Hello readers, and thank you for taking time to read The Unnamed. I plan on making this story epically long, but I'm gonna have trouble with that, so please be sure to leave reviews! I don't have any really big important news, but I do have something to say about this chapter. I have had a lot of trouble with this chapter simply because I don't think I'll be able to do the character Paninya justice. So I've decided to leave out the part containing her. However, if you would like me to write the part I skipped, leave a review saying. that and I will try and add it as an extra later. Once again, thanks for reading, and I will see you through the screen later!**


	6. Chapter 4

The girl blinked her eyes open slowly, unable to tell the difference between when they were open and when they were closed. A dull headache throbbed in the front of her mind, but the darkness seemed to help. As she blinked and looked around the room, she began to make out a large, looming figure on the opposite wall. She blinked faster, her eyes adjusting faster as well. She could now see that the person was wearing armor. It had lots of spikes and an odd symbol on the shoulder... Oh. It had taken her a long time to make out _who_ exactly was only six feet from her face.

"Um, Miss? Are you awake?" A boy-like voice spoke to her cautiously. She realized he hadn't noticed who she was, and she wasn't about to jeopardize her identity for small talk. She nodded enough for Alphonse to see in the darkness and he sighed, sounding relieved. "Thank goodness... I was worried you'd never wake up, given the rough way those people threw you in here."

'So that's where I got the headache...' Valerie thought to herself. She sat in silence for a minute before realizing the armor was waiting for a response. She cleared her throat and tried to make her voice deeper than usual before replying.

"I'm sorry to have worried you," she answered, hoping her change in voice would hide her identity. Hearing a gasp from Alphonse, she knew she'd failed.

"I know that voiced," Alphonse realized verbally. Valerie mentally cringed as she waited for the boy to blurt out her name. "You're the girl I tripped on the train!"

...

"Huh?" Valerie didn't even realize she had spoken aloud until Alphonse replied.

"Yeah! You were trying to push past quickly, and I ended up tripping you on accident," Alphonse explained, adding in a sheepish apology at the end. However, Valerie wasn't listening.

'Should I be relieved or should I be mad? I mean, it's been five years, but the kid should at least recognize his own sister's voice! He remembers the voice of the random person he ran into on the train, but he can't remember his own sister's voice?! If I wasn't tied up, I would... Wait, I'm tied up? How did I even get down here anyway? Last I remember...'

_The girl in the dark cloak pushed the hood of her cloak back before she sat in the seat in front of the homunculus, a smirk on her face the whole time._

_"I don't think you should be smirking, girlie. You just walked into the lair of Greed, the man who wants everything, with your hands tied," the homunculus stated with an air of confidence. The girl shrugged, placing her hands in her lap and leaning back in the chair._

_"Who says I need my hands to do alchemy?" She asked this question rhetorically, but they both knew there was a hidden meaning in it. It revealed who she really was. "How do you know my father didn't train me in the use of unmoving alchemy?"_

_"You're bluffing," the homunculus replied. He sounded sure of himself, but in honesty his confidence was wavering while hers was growing. Had he really been fooled into a trap like this?_

_"Bluffing? Why would I bluff in a situation like this? All you'd have to do is tell me to prove it and I'd make a great fool of myself," she answered, completely serious. Though, she was bluffing. And by stating the one situation she didn't want to happen, hopefully her opponent would think she had thought ahead of them and believe her even more. When Greed stayed silent, she knew her bluff had worked. "Bring me some tea and I'll tell you what I want," she ordered arrogantly. The homunculus was surprised, and his surprise turned to anger as he heard her haughty tone and request._

_"Who are you? Thinking you can come in here, threaten me, and then order me around," Greed raged, standing from his seat and slamming his hands into the table between him and the girl._

_"I'm the person who'll kill you if you don't do as I ask," she replied, her glaring eyes freezing his mind and preventing all thought. "Besides, it's just one harmless cup of tea, right?" _

_Greed left the room in a rush, his anger frozen by her icy glare. As he stomped through the halls of his hideout, he concocted a plan to stop the girl. He knew his thoughts could be frozen by her glare, so it had to be something he could do without needing to think. Then, he got the perfect idea. Bringing her tea with a little something added in, he went back into the room, his confidence back to its original level. He set the tea in front of her harshly, some of the liquid splashing out onto the desk. He returned to his seat as she made a 'tsk' sound with her tongue._

_"How do you expect to get the ladies if you can't even fetch tea without having a tantrum?" She asked him teasingly, hoping to make him angrier. He exhaled his anger, calming himself before continuing._

_"So, what is it you want with me?" Greed asked, getting to business. Valerie maneuvered as best she could with her hands tied to pick up her tea and stir it, but all she succeeded in doing was make herself look like a fool, so she set it back down after taking one sip. Clearing her throat, she replied._

_"I want you and your gang to help me defeat Father before the Promised Day," she demanded. The homunculus would have been shocked if this demand, filled with knowledge of things normal people shouldn't know about, had come from anyone else. But, knowing she was the daughter of Hohenheim, he could understand how she came to know about the coming events. Though he was about to reply, she continued. "I know you have no love for Father and his band of misfits, and you and your own band of misfits could probably do a lot of damage to his plans without him realizing it." She paused again for a long time, and just as he was about to reply once again, she cut him off. "Plus, if you were to ignore me and remain neutral, you wouldn't get the sweet info I have about the attack Father's planning on this place." The last bit of that sentence caught the homunculus off guard. Finally he interjected, and she didn't interrupt._

_"What do you mean Father's planning on attacking us?! We've never caused him any real trouble, so he should just ignore us," Greed shouted. Valerie smirked before replying._

_"You're his disappointment of a son. You ran away from him, and that just makes him look bad. If he can't control his own son, how can he control the power he's trying to obtain? Those sorts of thoughts run through the heads of his subordinates. If he doesn't act fast, they might think he is weak and try to dispose of him. He won't be put out of power, but we're too close to the Promised Day for him to risk having to start over. It would just be so much easier for him to get rid of you and reassure his dominance than let you be and have your mere presence destroy everything he's worked for," Valerie explained. If this were a battle of two fronts, Valerie had nearly won one while Greed had used a trick to win the other. Suddenly, Valerie's body felt weak. Her eyes glazed over and her mind grew still. It took her a moment to realize what had happened, and in that long moment, Greed had tightened the bonds on her wrists and wrapped new ones around her ankles. He then lifted her up and was carrying her to the room where she was to be imprisoned._

_"What a creep you are," she joked, using all the energy she had left to say this one sentence, "drugging girls and tying them up." With that one last chuckle, everything went black._

"Oh, that creep!" The girl exclaimed as her memories flooded back. The boy in the corner was startled by her sudden outburst and change in voice. "If he ever unties me, I swear I'll kill him!"

"Um, killing's not nice." The boy across the room tried to calm Valerie down, and though his words didn't calm her desire to destroy, she forced herself to calm down and let out a sigh.

"So, I sure do hope you were joking when you said I was "the girl you tripped on the train," Alphonse Elric," Valerie accused. Though he most likely could not see her eyes, she gave him a cold glare. Alphonse looked apprehensive as he processed what she had just said.

"I wanted to make sure before I suddenly called you my sister," Alphonse confessed.

"Welcome home, Valerie."

Valerie revelled in the feeling of having someone say her name for the first time in five years. In her mind, Truth had only called her "you," and to her body, she doubted anyone had called her name the whole time she had been in the hospital. However, the feeling was familiar, and she was glad to have something that felt familiar despite the five year gap in her experience.

"What's with that cat?" Alphonse asked suddenly.

"Huh?" Valerie questioned. She glanced down at her side and saw a small black cat curled up beside her. It was a small black cat with a very strong dark energy, red eyes, and an ouroboros tattoo... It reminded her of a homunculus...

She jumped back from the creature, sending it sprawling across the room, far away from her. As it flew, red sparks flashed around it until it was in the form of a person with black hair and an ouroboros tattoo. He crossed the room quickly and sat in front of her, looking at her with eyes that seemed to filled with either love or longing.

"Valerie!" He shouted, moving closer to her than she was comfortable with. Her heart clamped tight, and a warm yet cold feeling flushed her body.

'The hell is this? Why do I just want to draw him close to me?' She thought as he inched closer.

"I missed you so much! I'm so glad you're safe," he wrapped his arms around her cheerfully, and though her body and soul wanted to hug him back, she forced herself to push him away.

"Who the hell are you?! And why am I in love with you?"

**Hello, readers! Thank you for reading my latest chapter. Sorry it's so late. I was really sick for a bit last week and when I got back to school, my teachers threw a lot of work at me. And then stuff happened with my dog... So I've been busy, basically. **

**Thanks for reading, and please review. Stuffs just now starting to get interesting, and, just so you know, my goal by the end of this story is to rip your heart out and stomp on it multiple times. Sorry, but there will be at least a little bit of sadness, fluff, life, and death. This will be similar to the original series, but I'll change things so the end will be different. Small differences can mean a world of difference by the time the Promised Day comes, so if anybody wants to guess the end or anything else, I'll make sure to send a response.**

**Once again, thanks!**


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